The Darkening Waters
by MagicAlpha
Summary: [Mermaid AU] Judith Hopps, daughter of royalty and heir to the underwater throne, becomes concerned about the kingdom she inhabits upon having a strange dream of darkness within the waters. Little does she know of what arising evil and great dangers lie ahead of her. As well as the appearance of a sly merfox.
1. Chapter One

_Swimming: It was an instinct that always could be performed with no effort and pretty much straightforward. Under the current circumstances, however, it was a lot more complicated than simply propelling your body forward through the water. No, the situation that was transpiring was a lot graver. The act of swimming as fast as physically possible was not for fun or leisure this time. Right now, it was for the sole purpose of survival. To get away from the danger. To make it back home safely. To live and not die._

 _Her heartbeat was becoming faster and faster, feeling as if it were going to explode out of her very chest. Her brain working on a very rapid level, endorphins rushing through her body. A single thought played over and over inside of her head, like a mantra to be repeated in an order to focus: Swim… Swim… Swim!_

 _She took a quick look back, regretting that she did upon seeing the inevitable. What had been sinisterly following her this entire time was starting to gain up on her. And no place for instant retreat was in sight. She was a single figure in a vast expanse of turquoise water, hopelessly trapped without any other second plans left. Her mouth opened wide, her face covered with an expression that was a proportionate mixture of shock and panic._

 _She picked up the pace, swimming at a speed she never thought that she would have to go. It was practically pointless considering her slowly worsening circumstances, but it was basically the only available option that the poor thing had left._

 _Finally reaching a point of the ocean in which she could pause slightly and recollect her senses, the figure placed a gray paw over her wildly beating chest. Her body still apace after being chased by whatever unrecognizable thing had been following her. She was unsure of what the thing was exactly (or what its origins were, for that matter), but right now all that mattered was figuring out where in the deep blue she was. And more importantly, how in the world she would make it back home._

 _A swoosh sounded off around her, making her ears perk up in unfortunate curiosity. "Do I dare look around?" she murmured to herself, frightened at what could possibly be awaiting her next move._

 _She cocked her head to the left, to the right, and to the left again before confirming that the coast was presumably clear. Although she didn't really want to, she knew she would have to look behind her. After all, she would to swim back in that direction in order to get back home. Her face twitching with consternation, the figure turned around to nothing. Absolutely nothing to fear, just the entirely average sea of bright blue waters and sand-covered grounds. She exhaled, deeply breathing out a sigh of relief. Her previous discomposure was just a false alarm._

 _After reassuring herself that there was nothing dangerous within range, she decided that it was just about time that she carry on back to where she needed to be. Relieved, she swam on without any worries coursing through her anymore._

 _The watery pathway was quaint and as it should be, but something simply seemed off about it. It made her become confused, wondering if this was the way she had gone or if she was going the wrong direction. In contrast to the typical cerulean waters, the ocean seemed to get darker and darker. However, this was not the darkness that spawned from the fall of nighttime. This inky blackness was something else. Something unexplainable. Something that could not be understood, even if she wanted to try real hard and comprehend it._

 _A faint sound reverberated nearby, causing her to pause and getting her immediate attention. It almost as if the noise was a shout or a cry of some sort, though she wasn't exactly certain about what it really was. She squinted her eyes, quizzically observing her darkened surroundings to see if the source of the sound was getting closer._

 _As fate would have it, the resonating noises got closer. They belonged to other mer-mammals (a set of five, to be exact), all of which were shouting as they retreated from something that was not in view. Three of them, complete strangers to one another, scattered hopelessly upon getting further away from the unknown. Another two, a mother and her undoubtedly frightened kit, stayed close and tried hard to stay collected._

 _She stretched out a paw, hopelessly trying to get one of the retreating mer-mammals to see or hear her. "Hey! Come back, where are you going? What's-"_

 _Suddenly, she couldn't see anything. The top of her head all the way down to her fish-like tail was no longer visible, not by her or any other figure that just might have been present._

 _Her breaths became rapid and more shallow with each one she took, not making the situation any better._

 _"Judith," an ominous, disembodied voice called out._

 _The uncanny sound of it made her pause in surprise. Whatever it was awaiting her, how did it know her name?_

 _Collecting whatever bravery was left in her, she dared to reply. "H-Hello?"_

 _"Judith," was all she got in response._

 _"W-What a-are you-"_

 _But she didn't even get to finish what she was about to say. Her words were cut off by something forcefully thrusting her deeper into the darkness. A scream sliced through her, but it became no longer audible as whatever it was manipulatively held her back._

 _"JUDITH!" another voice called out, only this time it didn't sound evil. It was quite recognizable, even within a crowd of a thousand strangers. It was the sound of her mother's voice calling out for her…_

* * *

"Judith Laverne Hopps, I have called your name about a hundred times already! Come on, get up and get yourself ready. A big day is ahead of you!"

Judith bolted upward as her terrifying dream faded away. Fear and darkness were overcoming her no longer, the compelling voice of her mother being the first thing to greet her on what would be another fine morning.

While the dream was dissipating from her, she could still sharply remember a lot of it. If she were to say anything about it, however, her parents would probably just tell her not to worry about it and that it was simply a dream. Her grandfather, on the other paw, would've put it bluntly and urged her that the dream meant something. _Especially_ with such dark visuals like hers. How she wished he was still here, so that he could perhaps hint at whatever the blackening of the waters meant. If he were here, she would have swam straight up to him and told him all of the vivid details.

 _It has to be some kind of omen_ , she thought.

However, she quickly dismissed her thinking before it started to take over her brain. As her mother said before, today was going to be a big day for her. One in which Judith was not really that excited about. Tonight would be the observance of a great ceremony, one that would mean a lot. It would be the ceremony in which she would be officially crowned as the next of kin to rule the kingdom in which her mother solemnly protected. Any individual would be more than happy to live the life of royalty, but for Judith it was more of curse rather than a blessing. In short, the poor and unfortunate mer-bunny didn't ask for any of this.

"Judith!" her mom exclaimed from the other side of the door. "I am not calling your name again!"

"Coming!" Judith replied.

Judith stretched arms out wide, yawned and pulled herself out of her bed. Slowly swimming over to her bedroom window, she opened the drapery and let the naturally-occuring sunlight of the waters brighten her environment. The luminous rays of light warming up the room, creating a more radiant and effulgent atmosphere. The dazzling luminescence reflecting within the glass of a large, silver mirror that Judith made her way over to.

Gazing at her reflection, she quickly surveyed her figure. Delicately fixing her ears, she looked back at the mer-bunny that who was staring back at her. She examined her thin, gray frame that the mirror was projecting, as well as the dark but stunning dress that hung over her shoulders and down her frame. The sparkling tail of hers, a soft aqua color with hints of violet, glimmered within the brightness of her now fully illuminated bedroom. The mer-bunny grabbed a seashell bracelet (one of many from the assorted collection of some of the finest underwater jewelry) that sat idly on the stand beside the mirror. Placing it gently over her gray paw, she looked at how it appeared on her arm before fastly swimming over to bedroom door that remained tightly shut.

Judith placed a paw delicately on the silver doorknob and turned it, being greeted by the slightly irritated look of her mother, Bonnie Hopps. With her paws crossed and her tail impatiently flickering, her mother stood sternly in front of her.

"Sorry," the mer-bunny shallowly breathed as her mother put a paw in hers. The two of them darted down the spacious hallways, swimming their way past other unoccupied rooms and around a bend.

Bonnie turned her head as they continued onward, noticing an unusual look on her daughter's face. "Judith, what's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing," Judith replied faintly. "Just had a bad dream was all. I was running from this thing I couldn't see. and then there was just this darkness."

Bonnie nodded her head. "Oh, I see. Probably just bad nerves. I remember clearly when I was your age that I stressed about the same thing, but everything went as it should and then I realized there was nothing to worry about. Now come on, we've got-"

"A big day ahead of us?" Judith interrupted, rolling her eyes at her mother repeating the same statement.

Bonnie caught a glimpse out of a window that she and her daughter passed up, looking outside at the current outside conditions. "Pretty calm weather today. Let's just hope no storm or bad current comes in tonight."

Judith simply stayed silent as she followed her mother's lead to where others were waiting to help her in preparation of the ceremony. She tried to keep her mind on what was soon about to happen, but her thoughts lead back to the dream.

 _No,_ she told herself this time, _you need to calm down. Mother's probably right. It's all just your bad nerves._

That was what she continued to tell herself for the moment: It was all just a dream. There was no omen or meaning behind it and there was nothing to be afraid of.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** **Hey everyone! Well, the creative juices were flowing inside of me once again. And this is the result of another one of those silly, stupid ideas that starts playing inside of my head. I know it's very unusual, but I thought it'd be something interesting to write out so I got to work on it. Hopefully it's the start to something fun and adventurous. :)**

 **Hope you enjoyed this little introduction to the underwater world being established, and hope you look forward to seeing where this story goes. I know it's short, but I'll be adding more as soon as I possibly can. I hope that you'll enjoy what I've got cooking up for you guys.**

 **As always, let me know what you think. Your thoughts, good and bad, are always appreciated.**

 **'Til next time! :)**


	2. Chapter Two

Just as her mother had repetitively stated, a big and eventful day truly did await her. Right from the minute she woke up, all of Judith's current energy was being used on the preparations that the kingdom was making for events yet to come. It all seemed so very hectic to the young mer-bunny, without any unoccupied period of time to have a small conversation with someone or just simply catch her breath.

For a good bit of used time, Judith underwent the rigmarole of meeting with some of the palace's providers of attire and making the decisions of what she would be wearing when the great ceremony would take place. After trying on quite a few dresses, some decisions regarding the attire were made (specifically by her mother). As much she didn't exactly enjoy being forced into a certain type of dress without any unique touch to it, there was no use making a fuss over things when there was other things that needed to be accomplished.

After she was finished with the outfit selection, she swam out of nearby door and now found herself in the decorative main hall of the palace she called her home. The area she currently occupied had architecture to it unlike anything else that ordinary eyes could ever see. The hall was quite spacious in size, an auxiliary amount of doorways on just about every corner that lead to rooms that served their own individual purposes. The walls shone in a dazzling assortment of colors, courtesy of the array of exquisite gems that complemented the overall atmosphere.

Judith peaked her head up, releasing the tension that was previously building up in her body as she gazed upward. Above the main hall, the ceiling was enclosed but seemed to be almost transparent. Thanks to the way that it was constructed, the light came through in its unbreakable luminescence. The mer-bunny broke out in a wide smile. Her stomach starting to unknot, she cotinued to idly stare upward at the shining light that came bursting through the outside's turquoise waters.

Her attention went back to the very middle of the grand hall, where a large and gorgeous portrait could be seen. The painting had been a depiction of a male mer-bunny, cloaked in an outfit decked with lines of both complimentary blue topaz and crystal quartz. Seated in a red chair beside the mammal in the portrait was none other than Judith's own mother, the two of them holding paws as they both delicately smiled.

Judith knew quite well that the male figure that the gigantic picture depicted was none other than her father, who, by her mother's poetic words, was considerably called "a mermammal that was more beguiling than the ocean itself."

Judith was only a small child upon her father's unfortunate disappearance, too small to possibly comprehend that he mysteriously went missing in a battle with an enemy from another territory. For further information on what her father had been like, she just had to simply rely upon her mother's words or the entertaining stories that were occasionally told around the palace.

For a quick moment, before heading off to what was next on her itinerary, Judith thought about her father and what he might have been thinking about her at the current moment. _What advise would he have had for me? Would he be proud of me and what I'm about to become? Is he pleased with how the kingdom and the provinces surrounding it are currently operating? I guess all I can really do is just pray that he is..._

When her trail of thoughts left her mind, Judith briskly swam her way over to an open door in the far right corner of the hall. Where she was currently swimming off to would make a nice and secluded space for what she now had on her mind. What was next on her agenda was practicing some of the spells that she would have to cast on the night yet to come.

* * *

Judith sighed in frustration, more than confused by the fact that her attempts at practicing her spell all failed. It wasn't making any sense in her mind as to how she couldn't seem to get such a simple magical practice wrong. She researched the techniques from the books from the royal library long and hard, making mental notes of all of the important details until her brain wasn't capable of studying anymore. She followed the instructions perfectly, making sure that she was performing the procedure and uttering the words to the spell correctly. And yet, somehow it just wasn't working the way she wanted to.

Performing a spell as simplistic as the one she was designated to cast shouldn't be as complicated as it currently was, but the overall pressure that settled in regarding when she would have to perform it weren't making things any easier.

Judith didn't exactly enjoy the concept of performing the magic she had been compelled to practice from a young age, nor did she fully comprehend why such spells would even be an important to ruling the underwater territories. But, as with everything else she could possibly think of, her mother had an explanation for its importance. After all, the act of casting would unveil how well she could use the timeless concepts of sorcery when it was needed for the protection of the province her mother protected.

Judith's mother, Bonnie, delicately swam over. Placing a paw on her daughter's shoulder, she pleasently tried to calm the tense nerves that seemed to be filling the room.

"Judith," Bonnie breathed, "why the frustration? This isn't like you at all."

"It's not working at all!" Judith bursted with vexation. "I don't get it, I studied the technique word for word. I-"

"There's no need to fret so much. It's just a simple energy spell."

Judith huffed in discontent."Okay. Yeah, sure it's just a little spell. Perhaps you're forgetting that my magic is what you have told me a _million_ times keeps this whole kingdom in balance?"

Bonnie saw the flustered expression of her daughter, sympathetically deciding that it was probably best if she gave her some solitude. "It's probably best if I leave you alone to practice some," she said, swimming away and slowly shutting the door behind her.

Judith took a deep breath, letting out it slowly as she tried to calm herself down. _Okay,_ she thought. _Take a deep breath now. Mother said it herself, your probably just letting your nerves get to you. Just relax. Now let's try this again, shall we?_

The mer-bunny closed her eyes, taking another deep breath in and out. Judith let all the previously rushing thoughts exit her subconscious mind, trying quite hard to make herself focus on nothing but practicing the spell. Her eyes still closed, she started moving and flaying her paws around in a specific circular motion. Judith began to chant in a sing-songy tone under her breath, muttering some of the words that she had previously memorized from the texts she had studied.

" _Ut forma_ ," she said out loud, completing one of the steps to the spell.

Judith soon after noticed that she started to sense a ball of energy gradually forming in between both of her paws. The mer-bunny gently opened her eyes, primarily gazing upon the transparent, energetic orb that she had just conjured up. A smile started to take form on Judith's muzzle, and her bright amethyst eyes started to beam with pure excitement. After going through a few failed attempts at making this spell work, she happily managed to perform it perfectly.

All that was left to practice was making the orb of energy move away from in between her paws and float away from her grasp. Most of what she had to do now was entirely dependent on her conscience and how focused she was on performing this very routine. If she somehow managed to get distracted from what she was doing, the orb would dissipate and she would have to start from the beginning again.

" _Discedite,_ " the mer-bunny murmured, feeling equal parts of both enthusiasm and nervousness.

The luminously gleaming ball of energy left from in between Judith's paws, floating away a few inches away from her just as she had assumed it would. The mer-bunny couldn't get much happier than she was right now; she would be whooping joyously with glee if she could, but decided to contain her enthusiasm as she had been taught to formally do. Silently but excitedly, she personally celebrated completing this small feat.

Judith simply stared at the orb, now unsure of what to do with it. According to the texts she had studied, these particular forms of kinetic energy could be given "commands" once casted, which could be used for healing or hurtful purposes depending on the wishes of the spell-caster.

Judith knew that she would have to give herself some additional practice on using the energy for such purposes, as she would more than likely need it if disaster were to strike the underwater territories. However, the mer-bunny decided to save that practice for another time and simply erase the existence of the energetic orb for the time being. There was no doubt in her mind that there would always be time to repeat this process again.

The mer-bunny clapped her paws together, cupping them, and slowly moved them away from each other in a separating motion, looking like she was pulling some invisible thing that was in her grasp apart.

" _Decrusto,_ " she said imperatively.

The orb did as her chanting statements commanded, losing both its glow and spherical shape before it dissipated away. Judith stood there idly, blinking her eyes a few times just to clarify that everything she had just done was real.

"I can't believe it," she murmured to herself, awestruck. "I seriously can't believe that I just did that."

From behind the opposite side of the door that had been gently cracked open, although Judith was entirely unaware, Bonnie nodded her head and watched the spell's completion with a slowly widening smile. _I knew that she could do it,_ she thought.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, in another distant place in the sea...**_

"Gah!"

Deeply gasping for breath, the figure widely opened up his eyes and lifted his body up in a state of utter panic. Steadily breathing in and out, he placed a large russet paw over his racing heart before stretching the pain that coursed through his neck. Getting a quick survey of his surroundings, he finally calmed himself back down to how he originally was.

Trying to get comfortable once again, the figure laid on his back again and stared up at the stalactites that grew down from the roof of the underwater cave he currently occupied. While it was mostly dark around where he laid in, the thin amount of shining turquoise coming from his right confirmed that it was definitely daylight.

The russet-furred figure looked around for any signs of something out of the ordinary, only to realize that there was no danger to be seen. He then looked at the unadulterated sand that was scattered abroad the ocean floor, additionally glimpsing down at his russet torso and his emerald tail that delicately glimmered within the dim lighting.

Realizing that the coast was clear, the mer-fox rubbed his eyes and swam to another corner of the cave. He was more than grateful for the light to be shining in from the exit to the space he was in, because right now he really needed to just swim around and try to get over the horror he endured in his sleep.

He couldn't quite remember everything, but the bits and pieces he _could_ recollect were quite spooky in nature. All he could remember from the fresh nightmare was that he was minding his own business, but suddenly he heard his name being called before he ended up being swallowed up into dark waters. That part of the night terror still made him shudder; the darkness was far from anything than he could have possibly imagined.

 _Get a grip, Nicholas,_ he told himself. _Don't let those dreams get into your head!_

A grunt that came from a familiar voice rang in his ears, reverberating from behind him.

"Nicholas," the voice said, sounding annoyed. "You better have an explanation for your outbursts last night. I barely got a wink of sleep because of you, you know that?"

A sudden swooshing sound stirred within the water, being a single sound that almost seemed to echo against the area of the cave. The source of the irritated voice now became fully visible within the light. The figure had large, pointy ears on the top of his head, with a coat of cream-colored fur from his leading down to his torso. From the waist down, the bottom half of his figure consisted of eight tentacles, reminiscent to that of an octopus.

"Fin," Nicholas apologized, frowning. "I am _so,_ so sorry."

The fennec cecaelia swam forward, rubbing his paws over his sleep-deprived eyes. "All I heard last night was you screamin' to something. You were yelling something like, 'Who are you? How do you know my name?'"

"Look," the mer-fox said, "I'm sorry but I was havin' some pretty bad dreams. Something was, like, chasing me down and then I just- I don't even know how to explain it. But if _you_ would've had the same dreams that I was having, you'd probably be doin' the same thing, I'll tell ya that much."

"Alright, let's get out of here," the fennec replied, looking out into the vast water that awaited them outside of the space they occupied.

"Amen to that," Nicholas murmured.

The mer-fox swam over to a corner to find a bag he had stored within the cave. The jingling sound of coins clinking together came from inside of the bag as Nicholas securely clenched it in his paw and swam off into the turquoise expanse. The cave that the two occupied as their considerable living quarters gradually faded away from view as they propelled themselves forward within the cerulean waters. Schools of various colorful fish could be seen going in all directions. Looking downward, Nicholas caught a glimpse of some of the deep sea rocks that seemed to serve as additional decorations to the sand below him. Way out in the distance, he could faintly see what looked like assemblage of buildings.

After a few minutes of continuously swimming forward, Nicholas found himself pleasantly coming through an area that was familiar to most. An array of elegant eateries and decorative shops selling their selections of exorbitantly-priced items surrounded both sides of the area the mer-fox had just entered. Various mermammals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes swam left and right, going about with their usual day-to-day business.

The dream popped up again in the mer-fox's brain, the part in which some unseeable forcefully pulled him into the dark replayed in back of his brain. _Maybe that dream was trying to let me in on something. But if so, then what in the deep blue is it trying to tell me? If that would be case, the dark was obviously something bad..._

Stopping at the very end of one corner in the district, where some luxuriously designed townhouses could be spotted, Nicholas caught sight of another restaurant opening its doors for the day. With the turning of the sign to indicate the restaurant was now open for another day of business, Nicholas sensed his stomach beginning to growl. It had been a fair amount of time since he had something to eat, and now was more than likely a good time to treat himself to something palatable.

The aromas of what was served within the restaurant hit his nostrils upon someone exiting the establishment, the scents seemed to be a wordless beckon to the mer-fox to go inside. The mer-fox gently put on a smile for the moment

"Come on, Fin," Nicholas said, swimming over to the restaurant's main entrance. "We probably got just enough currency on us to grab a bite, and the food here's not gonna eat itself."

"I'm right behind you," Fin called from behind him.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey there, everyone! First off, I want to say "thanks" to everyone who's been giving my stories a read. I also hope that you'll enjoy what else I have in store for this ridiculous little story I'm conjuring up.**

 **Now that we have the mer-fox version of Nicholas incorporated into the storyline, pretty sure things we'll get interesting from there. :)**

 **Hope I did a decent job with his introduction, as well as the introduction of the underwater twist on Finnick. For Finnick, I decided to depict him in this underwater world as a cecaelia, another type of undersea creature from mythology, instead of a mer-fox like Nick. For an idea of how Finnick would look, I'd think of something similar to the appearance of Ursula from The Little Mermaid.**

 **Anywho, h** **ope you enjoyed this chapter. And as always, don't be afraid to let me know your thoughts. Feedback, good and bad, is gladly appreciated.**

 **'Til next time! :D**


	3. Chapter Three

Her nerves proved to be the only thing that seemed to be holding her back from properly performing the magic, just as her had mother told her. However, now that she had herself in a more positive mood and was a lot more comfortable with what she was practicing, Judith swam back out into the main hall and over to where the palace's grand library was located. The other members of the palace's crew all seemed to see a sudden shift in Judith's attitude as she passed by, the expression she wore went from feeling unusually anxious to bright and happy. Some looking at the mer-bunny confused and scratching their heads at her, while others didn't seem to let it distract them from the tasks that were designated to them.

The rest of the spells that she would now be practicing would not end with disaster should something backfire, so now it was safe to say she had a new place to rehearse a few other abilities. The door creaked open, and with that Judith merrily swam inside. The grand library, even when she was very young, seemed to always be one of the mer-bunny's favorite places within the walls of the palace. Not only did the room house archives of basically every possible reading material one could ask for, but it also served as an occasionally serene place where Judith could just unwind for a few moments and forget about whatever it was that was going on around her.

Row after row of neatly-organized guides and scrolls stood idly on alphabetized shelves, some of their spines showing a fair amount of wear and tear from all of the years of use. The cases that consisted of all types of literature, both real and fictional, seemed to almost spiral around the circumference of the room itself.

Judith swam her way over to another corner of the space, browsing through the shelves until she came across where all the guides regarding sorcery were. The concept of magic was a very broad and expansive one, and fortunately the library had a lot of different information regarding the matter. As she traced a paw over all of the guides to find what she needed, she stopped at one particularly small instructional book in the middle of the shelf. Upon pulling it out, Judith recognized it as one of the things she used in her studies when she was young, back when the very thought of the seemingly stressful ceremonies seemed like a long time away.

Setting the old and worn guidebook (that she could only presume her mother, and perhaps even her _grandmother,_ used before her) down on the table, Judith flipped it open and started skimming through the pages to what she needed to find. The aged pages seemed to show just how old the book was, and occasionally notes in cursive writing could be spotted scribbled inside.

After getting to the page that she needed to find, Judith surveyed the words found within the guide, making quite sure that the relevant information regarding the spells sank into her brain.

When she felt that she was ready to get started on some practicing, she swam a few inches over to where a convenient mirror was located. Judith exhaled as she stared back at her reflection in the mirror, once again getting a good, hard look at her figure before commencing one of the spells she was going to try to cast.

The spell in particular, one of the few that would be displayed by her on the night of the big ceremony, was what the guides liked to call a disguising charm. From what analysis and descriptions that guides gave her, the mer-bunny found the reason they named it that way quite obvious. Disguising spells were technically classified as an intermediate level type of magic, which allowed mermammals to change an aspect about them in an order to protect their identities. According to the texts, changes could include fur color, size, and even the type of mermammal they were depending on what one wished to use it for.

"Okay," she breathed, talking to her reflection in the mirror. "Here goes nothing…"

Just as she previously did when was casting the energy spell back in the other room, Judith took a few deep breaths and attempted to get her mind thinking of absolutely nothing but what she was trying to accomplish. She extended her paws outward like she was reaching for something far away, waving and wiggling them around slightly before bringing them back to her and placing them upon her torso.

" _Mutare ad brunneis_ ," she muttered, her voice sounding slightly unsure if she had pronounced the chant properly.

Although she didn't exactly seemed certain, her doubts proved to be unnecessary when she realized that the spell was working as it should. _See,_ she lectured to herself, _it was all in your head that you couldn't do it. If Mother was here in the room with me, she'd probably be goin on to me about the exact same thing._

Her paws that still laid against her torso started to delicately glow, an energetic light radiated from them as she continued to focus on what change she wished to make to her appearance. Starting from her torso and slowly spreading upward, the color of her fur seemed to change from its typical gray hue to a light shade of brown. Judith watched in awe as the disguising spell that she casted did its wonder, the change in fur color spreading up to her paws, neck and shoulders, and finally at hear head leading to the tips of her ears. Looking at her reflection as it occurred, it almost seemed as if she was being painted over with an invisible paintbrush.

The change was complete, and Judith laughed joyously at the results of her practice. Despite her positive attitude, she had felt certain that performing an intermediate spell such as that one wasn't going to go according to plan. But seeing it for herself made her smile with delight.

The mer-bunny swam back over to where the book still sat, laid out at the page she had been studying. She quickly surveyed some of the notes that seemed to be scribbled within the particular pages. From what she could observe, the notes showed different ways on how to make small adjustments to one's appearance while the spell was in use.

Judith bolted back to the mirror, still feeling slightly surprised when the appearance of a brown rabbit stared back at her. Calming back down and containing her enthusiasm, she stretched out her paws and repeated the process again. Her paws glowed before she finished the rest of the chant, and Judith could only presume it was because she was still under effects of the spell.

" _Lefka podia,"_ she muttered this time.

The change was a lot quicker. Judith examined her reflection once again in a state of slight amazement, watching as only her paws, as well as a small portion of her arms, changed into a different color. She gazed her paws in wonder, the two of them now coated in a fluffy shade of white.

A sudden rap came from the door behind her, startling her greatly as she cocked her head around.

"One moment please," Judith called out, even though she wasn't exactly sure who knocked.

Looking at her disguised self one more time and repeating the routine, she tried to reverse the effects of the spell before heading back out into the open. " _Reverti,_ " she murmured in a hurry.

Judith watched herself in the mirror as the reversion of the disguising transpired. She watched closely as the brown color she changed herself to faded away, starting at the tip of head and working its way downward to her chest. Her paws went from white to brown to their original gray again, and with that she was back to her normal self again.

 _Well,_ she thought, catching a breath. _This was quite an experience!_

Judith swiftly swam her way over to exit the library for now (as there would be approximately a few hours left to prepare for whatever else for the day), ready to respond to whoever it was that came over knocking on it just a few moments ago. Upon approaching the bejeweled door that she had closed, she placed a paw upon the golden knob and turned it as-

" _Find him…_ "

The fur on Judith's neck stood up on end, and her ears perked up upon hearing those two uncanny words being muttered. The merbunny looked around, unsure of where the source of the call was. It wasn't coming from the other side of the door, nor was coming from inside of the vacant room. If anything, it seemed to be coming from inside of her head. In fact, the voice eerily enough sounded quite like _hers._ As if someone made a complete copy of her voice and was using it to taunt her. Regardless of the circumstances, however, the voice (or whatever it was that she was hearing) sounded both imperative and panicked.

Just to be on the safe side, Judith once again looked left and right before coming to the conclusion that there was no one there to have given her any sort of warning like that.

 _Now you're hearing voices?_ she moaned to herself. _First your crazy dream this morning, and now you're having some voice call out to you without anybody being there? That's right, Judith, something strange is about to happen. Either that or you're going crazy. One or the other. You just better just hope that Mother doesn't suspect anything strange about you. If she saw you acting crazy like this, she'd probably kick your tail and tell you-_

" _Find him!"_ she heard a second time, only this time it sounded a lot more exclamatory than it did previously.

Her trail of thoughts was brought to a screeching halt; the sound of that voice inside of her head seemed to pound against her sensitive eardrums. Those words weren't just said to her like they were the first time. They sounded they before shouted to her, as if grave danger was quickly approaching.

" _Find him!"_

The voice seemed to get a tad bit louder the third time, and with that Judith closed her eyes and placed her paws over her ears in an attempt to stop hearing it. _Perhaps it'll go away if I just ignore it,_ she thought.

After a few brief moments, Judith slowly opened her eyes back up and uncovered her ears. The voice seemed to stop. However, there was something else that now seemed _definitely_ wrong. Her ears drooped and her jaw basically dropped to the ground upon surveying her surroundings.

"What the-" was all she could get out of her before she was rendered speechless.

The library was as grand as it always was just a few moments ago, but now it unexplainably looked like the whole room was run-down. Some of the shelves that held all of the documents were completely bare, others half full but in complete and improper disarray. The table she was just studying on seemed to be flipped over; it now laid upside down with the legs of it sticking up in the air.

"What's h-happening?" Judith stuttered, feeling slightly unnerved by whatever this was that was currently happening. "What's g-going on?"

She basically frozen where she was, continuing to look around the now-destroyed room. The mirror seemed to be broken in the corner, and artifacts that once were on top of spaces now laid on the floor. On top of the disastrous look of the library, there was another thing that was completely wrong. The glimmer of the turquoise waters, originally coming through the space from the windows up above, was no longer filling the room. Instead, the view from the outside looked dark and murky. The waters almost seemed to resemble the kind that she saw in-

 _The dream…_

A lump formed in Judith's throat upon making her realization. In the nightmare that she had the previous night, something was calling out for her from within a darkening patch of water. This almost resembled what she had experienced that night, only this time she was only slightly barricaded from whatever the murky waters withheld by the walls of the library that was going to ruin.

"Judith," said her mother, coming from the other side of the door. This time, however, she could barely hear the sound of her name being called out to her. Her mother's voice sounded low and seemed to gurgle.

This all seemed as if she was having the dream all over again, but this time it was happening in the waking life. The word "vision" would have been a better way to describe it, and Judith was _certain_ that it was what she was having. The only mermammals that she read about that had visions similar to this all seemed to be those who were alive during very historic events. What if this was what was happening to her, and that she would eventually be part of something big that was either coming soon or in a near future?

" _Find… him…"_

 _Now there's that damned voice again!_ she said to herself, feeling a mixture of not-so-positive emotions filling up inside of her. "Find who?" was what she felt like saying, but was not sure if that would do her any good.

Judith turned her head to the right again, this time seeing a figure floating there before her. She looked at whatever it was that seemed to just be present, only making out the silhouette of whatever type of mermammal this was.

"H-Hello?" she called out. "Who are y-you?"

The mermammal stayed silent and still in its position. Judith cautiously propelled herself closer and closer to the figure, trying her darnedest not to show any fear towards what she was facing. It wasn't another merbunny, and Judith could be sure of that. This figure seemed to have pointed ears on the top of its head and a narrow frame. Within the small amount of casted light, an emerald tail stuck out of the darkened space.

Judith got as close as she could without getting uncomfortable, her jaw dropping on seeing what the figure really looked like. Upon faintly catching a glimpse of russet fur, she immediately concluded what was standing in front of her.

"Merfox," she murmured, slightly taken aback.

With that, Judith averted eye contact and the vision that she was having seemed to go away. When she looked over to where the mer-fox was standing, she noticed that he was gone. It was all just a part of… whatever it was that she just experienced.

She looked around. Nothing was in disarray anymore, and everything was as it should be. The table was propped up the way she had left it, the book on top of it on the page she was reading from. The shelves were all organized. Looking up, Judith noticed that the waters were crystal clear; no longer were they blanketed in that murkiness that made her spine shiver.

"Judith?" she heard her mother call again, knocking on the door. "Are you okay?"

Taking a deep breath out, Judith answered the knock and exited the room.

* * *

 ** _A few moments later…_**

Judith managed to get a small amount of free time, in which she was not being occupied with either practicing her magic or being asked about preferences on how things should look for the night of her ever-so-important ceremony. Her mother was currently on another floor of the palace, busy with some of the other members of the royal crew as they sorted out several things. As she watched her shut a door behind her while discussing something with others, Judith turned around and sighed.

The spine-chilling vision that she just had was still fresh in her brain. She wasn't exactly sure what it was that happened a few minutes ago, nor what purpose it served, but she was partially glad it was over. If the day wasn't important and eventful day, a much-desired nap would've been nice for the young merbunny.

The sound of the giant palace doors loudly creaking open resonated across the halls, making Judith's heart skip a beat. _What's happening? Who's at the doors?_

A chorus of a few voices came from the entryway that lead to the main hall, followed by the echoing noise that came from the doors slamming shut.

"Ju _uuuuuuu_ dith!" a jovial, playful voice cried out.

The merbunny's ears perked up upon hearing that voice ring out from a distance. Getting up from the red chair she was shortly relaxing in, Judith swam off to meet up with the source of the familiar mermammal that was saying her name. _That voice… Could it be?_

On the other side of the room was who was calling out to her. A black mer-sheep swam into view as she slowly approached the main hall. She was wearing various pieces of exquisite jewelry, two of which included a silver locket over her neck and a colorful, glimmering bracelet that rested on her left hoof. A long, slate blue dress drooped down the mer-sheep's shoulders all the way down her body.

"Sharla?" Judith said as she swam forward.

"Judith!" Sharla greeted, swimming up to greet the merbunny. "Oh my goodness, there you _are_!"

For just a moment, all of the worries about everything happening left Judith's mind upon seeing her best friend swim into the room to visit. Her and Sharla had known each other since they were little, and the two of them had a friendship that was basically inseparable despite their parents being protectors of two different and somewhat distant provinces.

"Give me some tail, girl!" Sharla said playfully.

Her and Judith both jokingly slapped their tails together, resulting in a small spree of laughter that erupted between the two of them.

"Gosh," Judith said. "We've been doing that little shenanigan of ours since we were just kids."

Sharla laughed at Judith's reminiscing. "Yeah, we have."

Two merbunny guards came swimming in, both of them carrying individual stacks of decorative boxes adorned with colorful ribbon.

Judith's eyes dotted over to all of the boxes that were now sitting in the corner. "I see that you brought along a couple things," she remarked.

"Well, a special event like this only comes so often. Of course my family and I had to bring at least a few gifts. So, not too long before the ceremony, huh?"

"Yeah…" Judith breathed, sounding a tad uninterested with the approaching subject matter.

"The jitters gettin' the best of ya?" Sharla asked.

Judith shrugged her shoulders, still wearing a gentle smile. True, she indeed was feeling the jitteriness that undoubtedly came with the approaching events. On top of that, however, the dream and vision she had endured was still fresh in her mind. Sharla was always open-minded to a lot of different and occasionally unusual things, but she was just not sure whether to tell her about it right now or not. "It's a little more complicated than that," she said. "But trust me, all is good. Especially now that you came to give me a visit."

Sharla smiled and paused for a short moment. She pondered in silence for a few seconds, trying to come up with a way to change the subject. She outstretched her one hoof towards Judith. "You see the new bracelet?" she inquired.

Judith eyed up the piece of jewelry, placed a paw over her mouth, and gazed upon it with a small sense of awe. The bracelet shimmered with a kaleidoscope of various gemstones. "Gosh, that is just _gorgeous,_ " she said.

"I know, right?" Sharla replied, darting over to grab a small box tied with aqua-colored ribbon that was laying on top of all of the other gifts that she brought over. She handed it over Judith. "The moment I saw this one and got it, I knew I had to get you one, too." She paused a short moment after the words left her mouth. "Uh, sorry for kinda spoiling the surprise about what was inside the box," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "My big mouth never knows when to stop, does it?"

"Oh, that's quite alright," Judith replied, innocently.

The merbunny removed the ribbon off of the box and opened it up, quickly placing the bracelet identical to Sharla's that was inside over her paw. "Thank you," she said, looking at the way some of the gemstones shined in the light.

Sharla, who was over by the stack of gifts again, turned her head around and came swimming back with a slightly larger box in her hooves. "There's plenty more where that came from." She handed the next gift over to Judith. "Here, open this one. This'll put a smile on your face that _nothing_ can break."

Judith lifted the top off of the silver box, gasping upon seeing what it was that was inside. "Oh my!" she exclaimed. _How in the deep blue did she manage to get these?_ she thought to herself.

Inside was a selection of various pastries. Some had filling in the middle of them and others were topped with a coat of thick and decadent frosting. Others seemed quite unfamiliar to Judith, as they were ones that she had never heard of or tasted. The sweet treats weren't just from any ordinary bakery that one could just enter and make a purchase. Judith knew quite well that these pastries, according to the logo that was written inside of the box, were from a very ornate establishment. One in which only a select number of mermammals could visit.

"My family thought you'd like something sweet," Sharla said. "I mean, let's be honest with ourselves for a second. Who _doesn't_ like something sweet, am I right?" She pointed a specific pastry on the corner of the box. "Oh my goodness, Judith, you _have_ to try that one. This has got to be one of the sweetest things out there."

Judith grabbed the pastry out of the box and brought it up to her mouth. Upon taking a bite, her eyes glowed from the taste. "Wow, that's so good," she remarked.

"I know," Sharla replied. "I hear it takes the chefs several days to make some of those pastries in there. That's somethin' when you think about it: Several days to make it, and several _seconds_ to eat it."

Judith exchanged laughter as she took one last bite of the pastry that she was savoring.

Upon finishing, the mer-sheep grabbed her by the paw swam her out of the grand hall, where no one was visible or capable of seeing the two of them. "Come on!" she proclaimed. "Let's go!"

"Sharla, wait!" the merbunny exclaimed.

"C'mon, Judith," Sharla repeated. "Don't you got time for just one little race with me? We haven't done that since were, like, little. And you still got a long time to worry about all that other stuff comin' up."

Judith wanted to suggest otherwise; it just didn't seem like the right to be lallygagging. But her mother was currently occupied and out of the way, leaving her to have a bit of fun with her friend that came to see her before the big ceremony took place. This seemed like a good opportunity to forget about all of the craziness for a few moments and just have some fun. "Oh, alright," she said, getting herself ready to dart off. "You ready?"

Sharla innocently snickered. "Oh yeah, I'm _definitely_ ready."

"Just don't be too surprised when you're left in the dust," Judy remarked, reminiscent of the way they used to jokingly exchange comments like that to each other when they had friendly races in their youth. "After all, I was always the faster one when it came to this kind of thing."

"Won't have to worry about that, I've had some practice."

The two looked at each other competitively before Judith started their countdown with a smile. "Three… Two… One… _Go!_ "

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile, in another part of the sea…_**

Nicholas had just finished up eating the enjoyable food dish he had at the restaurant, his stomach now feeling fuller than it did upon him waking up in the early afternoon. The merfox paid for his delectable meal with the little bit currency he had with him (the small bag of money he carried around, much to his surprise, had just enough to cover the costs), and afterwards made his way back out to the streets that surrounded the restaurant.

The multitude of shops and other offices around the district seemed to be just as busy as they were when he swam into the area, and the overall busyness showed no signs of dying off anytime soon.

Nicholas let out a sigh of contentment, looked both ways as he looked around at where he should go next. His fennec cecaelia friend, Finnick, came swooshing next to him a few seconds later.

The two made their way back into the heart of street, where some other small boutiques and a market were located. After making themselves over to a small business they both had in mind to visit, Nicholas and Finnick both swam over to the front door.

Before Nicholas could even place a paw on the shop's door to push it open, he heard something that caught his attention. A voice, to be exact, and a very peculiar one at that.

" _Find her,_ " it called, and those words seemed to chill Nicholas to the bone.

"Who?" he mouthed out loud, sounding startlingly loud in tone.

No response…

He cocked his head over to the side, and saw the figure of a gray merbunny a few inches away from him. Her gleaming, aqua-colored tail flickered a few times, and the expression on her muzzle seemed to be one of unease. _What is this?_ he thought. _Is this a mirage or something?_

" _Find… her…"_

Nicholas rubbed his paws over his eyes, trying to see if he was just imagining all of this in his head. The merbunny was still there, still remaining idle in the place she was.

" _Help… her…"_

"Nicholas?" another voice chimed in, bringing him back to the present moment. The voice belonged to none other than Finnick.

A cream-colored paw swatted near Nicholas's face, making him flinch. The merfox blinked, and when he did the mysterious vision of the merbunny had completely disappeared. Despite being there not only a few seconds ago, it seemed to have vanished.

"Hey!" Finnick called out. "You there, Nicholas?"

Nicholas turned his head around. "Y-Yeah?" he stuttered.

"You were zoning out on me, Wilde," Finnick replied. "I dunno what's up with you today, but you're actin' kinda strange lately."

"Sorry, I just… I saw something, I guess."

"C'mon, we better back to the cave. You're starting to weird me out a little."

The two swam out of the district and proceeded to make the slightly lengthy swimming trek back to the cave that they started their day in. Within the moments that had passed, Nicholas started to ask a few questions, not out loud but in his head: _Was that some sort of calling meant for me? Who was that merbunny, and why do I need to "find her" as I was supposedly told to do? Is she in some sort of distress right now, or am I to help her in a situation that's yet to come? Where do I even find this merbunny? And more importantly,_ when _do I need to find her?_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** **Hey howdy hey, everyone! Man, this update came quicker than I was originally expecting it to. But the urge to do some more writing acted up and I got to work here.**

 **So it would appear that Judith had a vision similar to her dream, one that additionally included her seeing certain mer-fox and a voice telling her to "Find him." And now it seems that Nicholas is undergoing similar** **circumstances, too?**

 **Dun dun DUN!**

 **Anyhow, h** **ope you enjoyed this chapter. It wasn't exactly the best I could come up with, but I hope y'all liked it. I know this time around I only wrote a little bit about Nick and focused primarily upon what Judy's doing, but I'll be getting more portions written about Nick in this world as the story continues to progress onward.**

 **And as always, don't be afraid to let me know your thoughts. Feedback, good and bad, is gladly appreciated. Also, thank you to everyone who's been reading all of my stories, especially this silly and ridiculous little one that I've been working on.**

 **'Til next time! :D**


	4. Chapter Four

"So let me get this straight, Wilde," Finnick started, feeling more than confused now that Nicholas let him in on all of the unusual things that he had been experiencing. "What you're telling me so far is that you're having visions of some merbunny bein' in danger, and that this connected somehow with those night terrors you were havin' the other night. And on top of that, you've _also_ said that you feel that this voice or whatever in your head is telling you to find her 'cause she's in some sort of grave danger. Did I miss anything?"

Nicholas shook his head. "No," he murmured, "that's pretty much it."

The merfox was more than sure that everything he had told his friend about was completely truthful. After getting back to the cave where they could both be in a safe location, Nicholas simply let Finnick know about what he was experiencing. Even if it _did_ make him sound like a lunatic, he needed to just spill it all out. Lucky enough for him, his friend was at least attentive enough to listen to his words despite how ludicrous they were to him when they were being spoken.

"And you're _sure_ that those weren't _fermented_ sea urchins that you brought back from that stand the other day?" Finnick cracked in reply. "'Cause what you said you're seeing sounds to me like you're having a hallucination from the-"

"Fin!" Nicholas exclaimed, sending a hard nudge to Finnick's shoulder.

"Geez, Wilde, I was just joking. You don't gotta be—"

"I'm bein' serious right now! There's somethin' weird goin' on and I just know it!"

Nicholas's exclamation brought Finnick's words to a halt for the time being. The merfox propelled himself forward, swimming up to the parts of the cave where the minuscule light of the outside expanse could be seen faintly glimmering through. For a brief moment of time, Nicholas said no words and just stared blankly at the turquoise waters that lead most to other areas in the sea. He let out a big sigh as he looked out at nothing in particular, mentally attempting to reassess all of the craziness.

 _Swoosh! Swoosh!_

Nicholas heard and recognized the swishing sounds of Finnick swimming up to his side coming from behind him. The fennec cecaelia simply stopped at the merfox's right, placing a paw on his shrugged shoulder.

"Look," Finnick breathed. "I dunno what in the deep blue's goin' on with ya right now, but I'm gonna help ya figure everything out. I got your back, Wilde, you got that?"

Nicholas nodded his head, staying silent before he apologized to his friend for snapping at him a few seconds ago. A pat on the shoulder from Finnick reassured to him that he was going to be there to help him out, even if he was partially thinking in the back of his head that he was originally soundingg a bit crazy when it came to his visions. Exhaling deeply, a thought entered the concerned merfox's head: There was undoubtedly hundreds of merbunnys all across the sea, so how was he going to know where to find the one that he just had a vision about?

Sighing heavily, he thought, _I just pray that she isn't already in trouble and that I'm somehow already too late to find her. She could be in trouble now and I don't even know it!_

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

There was neither care nor concern coursing through Judith's mind. As her friend picked up her swimming speed and started to catch up to her, Judith suddenly swam upward before abruptly diving through a nearby passageway. Whooping delightedly, an ebullient smile gleamed on her face as bright as turquoise waters themselves.

After all of the unusual circumstances and hassle regarding her ceremony preparations, it felt good to her to just swim around freely in the presence of her best friend, just like she had once done back when the two of them were little.

The path of their friendly race didn't necessarily have any sort of designation to it, and there was good bit of shortcuts made by both Judith and Sharla. The two friends started within a spot back at the palace, and after darting through some of vacant hallways they went through an opened window. Once they were out of the palace and were out in the open, the two swam down several different places surrounding them. Their path lead them near the more-populated areas of the province Judith's mother governed, as well as around a few leagues away from it where ruins of objects from long ago laid scattered abroad the ocean floors.

Whoever made it back into the palace again and into the grand library first was declared the winner of the race, and that was Judith was currently hoping to be right now. The merbunny made a swift left turn, swimming upward and going back through the window they started the race from like it wasn't any problem at all.

Darting as quickly as she could, Judith made her way over to the library and waited there. Sharla, who had slowed down in pace slightly, swam over into the spacious room a few moments afterwards.

"I won!" Judith proclaimed.

Sharla smirked and let out a giggle. "I let you win," the mersheep replied. "Besides, you were _always_ the more agile one."

"Naturally," the merbunny remarked, slyly grinning at her best friend.

Laughter was exchanged, and Judith swam over to the other side of the library and rested a paw against one of the shelves behind her.

"So…" Sharla started, deciding to shift their discussions back to the upcoming ceremony once again. "What dress will I be seeing you in at this ceremony comin' up?"

The merbunny sighed upon her friend's inquiry. "Well, it's just a-"

Sharla held a hoof out. "Wait, forget about what I just said," she interrupted. "Don't tell me. I wanna be surprised when I see how gorgeous and sparkly it is when I see you in it at the event."

"Mother already picked one out for me with the dressers," Judith replied. "There's no surprise to it, Sharla. It's just long and plain white, and nothing fancy to it at all. I mean, a little touch of color to the dress or something isn't going to kill anybody, you know? Now if it were _my_ decision, I'd be dressed something that was a nice shade of purple."

The small sense of exuberance that their silly little race provided was starting to wear off of the merbunny a little bit, and Sharla swam closer to her to see what seemed to be the matter. The mersheep could just tell that there was something that seemed to be troubling Judith's mind; the signs in her face gave her enough of a clue.

"What's the matter, Judith?" Sharla inquired.

The merbunny turned her head to the side. "Oh, nothing," she simply replied, even though Sharla would more than likely know that she was telling a lie.

"It's about the dress, isn't it?"

"Like I said before, it's more than just that. If anything, it's kinda hard to explain without making it sound like I've gone completely insane. I'm not sure if you'd believe me if I told you."

The mersheep held Judith's paw in her hoof. "Hey," she said. "I'll believe whatever it is you tell me, no matter how crazy it sounds. That's what friends do for each other, right? So tell me, Judith, what is it that seems to be troubling you so deeply?"

Judith hesitated for a few seconds, unsure of where to start when it came to her explaining the dream and the vision of the merfox to her friend. At last, she deciphered a good way to begin the explanation to her unusual dilemma. "Have you ever had a crazy dream that stayed in your head for awhile after it was over?"

Sharla paused a moment and nodded her head. "I guess so..."

"Well, I guess you could say that's what seems to be getting on my nerves lately. I-I mean, it didn't seem like it was just a dream. I swear that it felt like it meant something, like it was trying _warn_ me."

"Judith, I'm sure it was just a bad dream. Everyone has those every now and then."

"I know, but my case is a lot different. Oh, and on top of the-"

"There you are!" a stern voice called from the opposite side of the room.

The source of the voice swam through a nearby passageway and into the library. Judith's mother, a fretted look written upon her, approached the shelves. "Where have you been, Judith?" she asked. "I turned my back for a quick moment the next thing I knew you weren't present in the palace. Frolicking around, I presume?"

Judith sagged her head downward, frowning. "I-I'm sorry, Mother."

Her mother looked at her, and then turned her attention to the mersheep who was beside her. "Sharla, dear," she said with a quieter tone. "I wish not to sound rude, but Judith and I still have a few more preparations to get back to."

Sharla understood that what she said was another way of saying that it was time for her to leave for the time being. "No problem, ma'am," the mersheep replied.

"And your generous gifts are much appreciated, Sharla." Bonnie turned to her daughter, taking her by the paw and leading her as the three went back out to the main hall once again.

As Sharla was taken back over to the exit of the palace by two merbunny guards, Judith looked over and waved goodbye to her. "Bye, I'll see you later," she said.

The mersheep turned her head around and waved back, still remaining gleeful as she was escorted out of the building.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile, elsewhere…_**

Within a considerably tranquil portion of the sea, seldom visited by the common mermammal, was a small, aged abode. The specific construction wasn't surrounded by much, and any neighboring lodging was either a good swim away or took a good bit of time to get there. Where it was located didn't exactly have the amenities of being near high-quality shops or eating establishments like other locations did, but the small group of folks that lived in this particular area didn't mind that in the slightest. Alternatively, they longed for the serenity that was provided within this part of the expansive waters, rather than calling home a place where everyone was constantly busy.

Swimming delicately over to the small abode in the middle of the sea bottom was a merbunny. In appearance, his fur was colored white with touches of black stripes upon his head. As he slowly approached the front door of the place, which looked slightly rickety when given a closer look, he gave it a friendly knock.

There was an awkward moment of silence after he had knocked on the door. And that was strange, because who was on the other side of the door always was there in a flash to greet him and help him with whatever it was that he needed. The merbunny waited about three seconds and then gave the door a second knock.

After he did so, he heard a noise that sounded like a grunt come from the other side of the door. Shortly afterwards, a familiar voice answered, "Come in. The door's o-open."

That particular voice that greeted him, however, did not sound like its usual self. Rather than being upbeat like it always was, the tone in it sounded to him like it was in a small sense of distress.

The merbunny had an unfortunate tendency to assume the worst case scenario, so he assumed for the current moment that it was just his mind over exaggerating and making him believe that there was distress. Disregarding that alarm for the time being, he opened the partially decrepit door and carefully swam inside.

His head looked around the area he now occupied. The surrounding walls were a little bit smaller, and some might have considered the main passageway a tad claustrophobic in size. If it wasn't for the small window that was carved a few inches away from where he was, the room would have been pretty dark to get his way around.

For a moment, he froze where he was. An almost uncomfortable amount of silence was what encompassed him. Normally who was inside came right up to him, either starting a conversation with him or ready to assist with whatever he needed help with.

"Uh, Skye?" he asked, his voice a tad faint.

The merbunny gingerly propelled his away through the main room, coming to another room that was a little bit more spacious than the previous entryway.

"Skye?" he called out again. "I came over to ask you if you still had any of that elixir you made for-"

A suddenly large gaping noise coming from nearby made his ears perk up, and his heart skipped a beat. Instinctively, the merbunny cocked his head to the right and swam as carefully as he could over to the source of the sound.

The room that he now found himself was where who was inside of the house seemed to spend most of her time. It seemed to be the largest area within the place, capable of accommodating the occasional guest or two that came.

In the middle of the space was a small, brown table. Taking up most its space was a large bowl, one that was coated in a shiny hue of silver. The mermammal he was looking for, just as his mind had suspected, was in here. However, he saw that she was in some sort of peculiar trance. He was not an expert when it came to matters such as this, but he knew that it was obviously not right.

All he could see was that the mermammal's neck was slouched downward, as if her head was gazing directly into the sparkly bowl even though nothing was inside of it. His jaw naturally dropping, he exclaimed, "Skye!"

Darting his way over to the other side of the table, he tried to decipher what he should to provide assistance (even though he was extremely unsure of what was even occurring in front of him). Skye still didn't move an inch from how she was currently positioned. The arctic merfox was idle, the only movement visible being the quick flicker that came from her silver tail.

First instinct told him to look behind him for something that could help her. On the wall behind the table, as well as the two sides surrounding it, was a series of projected ledges. Resting upon those ledges and shelves was a large collection of glass bottles, each of them bearing a label stating what was inside of it. All of the bottles contained liquids that all their own individual color to them, and the merbunny knew those to be none other than the various potions and elixirs that had been prepared.

His gaze went to a particular shelf, and he started to look at some of the containers. As he did, he accidentally made a slight disarray of the order that they were placed in due to his panicked state.

Skye had practiced the art of potions and the like for many years, and considered herself to be quite talented in her craft. The merbunny had been quite familiar with a few of the different things she created, so he felt certain that there was something that would help him out. Much to his dismay, however, he had absolutely no clue what to even look for. When it came to magic, he was basically illiterate.

"Damnation," he muttered under his breath, darting back over to the table.

He placed a paw gently upon the table. After a moment of silence, the head of the merfox suddenly jolted upward, and a large white paw of hers grabbed a hold of his. The sudden occurrence made him jump.

"Skye! W-What's wrong?" he said, but appeared like she couldn't hear what he was saying.

The expression on Skye's muzzle looked like she was completely incoherent to what was going around her. The merbunny wanted to get out of here for the time being, but he couldn't. He wanted to move away, but he thought in the back of his head that if he did something was going to happen to him.

" _A series of events shall come to pass_ ," Skye muttered to no one in particular, her voice sounding as if she was speaking in monotone. " _An evil will rise up and threaten to bring danger to the waters_."

He stood there, confused by what she was saying. _What does that even mean?_ he asked himself. _What is she talking about?_

" _Two figures shall be drawn to each other, one merfox and the other merbunny_ ," Skye continued to inform, still locked in the odd state that she was in. " _Both of them hold the key to saving the world from a terrible fate. Should they fail at the tasks before them, the waters will darken and death will come._ "

Right after she finished her muttering, Skye's head drooped back down and she let out a gasp. Her eyes flickered for a moment, and she turned her head over to the merbunny that was standing in front of her.

She let go of his paw, looking confused at the expression of fright that was still on his muzzle. "J-Jack?" she murmured, still confused and trying to recollect herself. Suddenly, Skye's eyes widened and she darted to the other corner of the room, rubbing a paw over her head. "I'm sorry, Jack, but the elixir you were asking me for is just going to have to wait."

Jack nodded his head. After what he just saw, he could completely understand that there were different things requiring attention at the current moment. For a moment he tried to mentally decipher all of the pieces of what Skye seemed to mutter just a few seconds ago.

 _Rising evil? Two figures from different places being drawn to one another? The waters darkening? What in the name of the gods does all of this even mean? Surely I must stay with Skye a little bit longer and figure out the definition of it all._

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey there, readers! Whew, it's been awhile since i've updated this, and I apologize for that. I know this chapter was a little bit on the shorter side, but I hope that it was still enjoyable.**

 **And as always, don't be afraid to let me know your thoughts. Feedback, good and bad, is gladly appreciated.**

 **'Til next time! :D**


	5. Chapter Five

"I-I don't understand," Skye babbled on, completely panicked. "I mean, I was in here as usual, going about my business, and then everything just… I don't know, I-I saw something and it was just so vivid and-"

"Skye, slow down," Jack said, interrupting the mervixen in front of him.

"I mean, I've made predictions in the past, but those were just a _feeling_ that something would pass—a hunch, if you will. But that was _far_ from what this just was, Jack. I cannot stress that enough. This was like I was right there in the flesh. There was… I don't know, just _panic_ everywhere, and then I saw this pairing that was-"

"A merfox and merbunny? I know," Jack interrupted. "You were muttering something to me about that."

"Wait, I was _muttering_ things?"

All Jack could do was nod his head in response. "Yes, Skye," he breathed. "You were."

"For once, I'm just not sure what to think right now." Skye placed a paw over her head and rubbed it where it was now starting to hurt. Slowly swimming to the other side of the room, she muttered to herself, "I need something to calm me down right now."

Skye surveyed all of the shelves holding her potions, stopping at the one that was now slightly disorganized. The moment her eyes became fixated on the particular shelf, she knew that things were not in the order that she had them in before the vision.

"My apologies, Skye," the merrabbit said. "When you were completely still while you're you were having that vision, my first instinct said to find something to help you. I don't know a damn thing about magic, and _you_ know like the back of your paw. If I made a disarray of your possessions, I'm-"

"It's not your fault," Skye interrupted, her words in a murmured tone. "Besides, this is a little more important than a shelf not being arranged properly."

The mervixen swam to a small brown chest that sat in the corner, She carefully opened the lid of it up, and Jack watched her as she browsed its contents. Within the chest there was five flasks that held liquids of different brightly-hued colors: Yellow, blue, green, red, and purple. A small note appeared to be written on the inside of the chest reading what the potions were.

Skye grabbed the one with the yellow solution inside of it, holding it carefully in her paw as she swam away with it and placed on the table in the middle of the room. Naturally, Jack followed her lead as he wondered what was in the bottle and what its purpose possibly was.

"Ah, here we are," Skye said to herself, the faintest possible smile coalescing upon her muzzle.

Although he wasn't exactly sure what she had with her, and wanted to make an inquiry about it, Jack just stayed silent for the time being and watched what she was doing. She took the flask and took the lid keeping its contents safely inside off.

Skye placed it over the large glass dish that was in the middle of the table, carefully placing two drips of the liquid inside of it. The minuscule droplets remained still in the bowl for a few moments, right before a pale yellow cloud started to rise up.

She started to slouch her head down into the large dish, looking as if she were gazing directly at something.

"What are you doing?" Jack found himself asking.

"Look into the dish," Skye replied.

Jack did as he was instructed to do. The moment that he did so, the room that he was slowly started slipping away from view, being replaced with another unknown location. The walls encompassing them started to fade away, and new scenery took formation. It as if he was in a dream but completely awake and aware of his surroundings.

He looked around and saw a small mervixen, innocently giggling as she swam up to who was presumably her parents. The little version of her swimming around as she played, and her father simply kept watch of her to make sure she didn't stray too far away from them.

"Lift your head back up," the present Skye's voice beckoned.

Jack did so, and suddenly saw all of the room that he started in coming back into view. The swiftness of him coming back to the present made him stumble for a short moment.

He turned his head over to Skye, who still had her head in the bowl. For a short bit of time, Jack just remained where he was in silence.

However, something started to occur that made the merrabbit's mind go back to the puzzle that he and Skye were previously trying to solve.

"What the-" Skye started to murmur. "What's happening?"

"Skye?" Jack asked. "What's wrong? What do you see?"

"The visions... They're happening again!"

He swam over to where she was again, but noticed that something was strangely off. The cloud that was in the bowl was no longer in its happy yellowish hue; it was now turning to an inky black. _An omen is what that must be,_ he observed.

A part of his brain was urging him to look into that bowl another time, and see the vision that Skye was currently seeing. Although he was actually a little bit scared about doing so, Jack put on his bravest expression, swam over to the dish and stuck his head into it like he did just a few moments ago. What he saw upon looking into the bowl this time around was the exact opposite of what he previously did.

"Oh my gods," was all that Jack could mutter.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, at the palace...**_

Nervousness was simply an understatement for Judith. After all, one of the biggest events that could ever occur in a royal merbunny's life was going to be happening sooner than originally anticipated.

For the time being, she tried to calm down and ease some of the tension that she was bringing upon herself. Sharla had told her awhile back that one of the simplest ways to find relaxation in the midst of a situation was to look at the fish swimming about, if any were in sight. And that was what Judith was doing in that exact moment.

Looking out of he room's window, she made a mental reminder to thank Sharla for her advice whenever she had the chance to. After all, what her friend had suggested was actually working a lot better than she originally expected.

A set of two fish came swimming in the corner of her vision, royal blue in color, with touches of black and yellow tails. A tiny one of similar appearance came swimming in a few seconds behind, as if it were trying to catch up with the other two.

"How pretty," she murmured to herself.

Additional preparations were underway, and Judith's eyes could faintly see some of her mother's crew assisting in the creation of what would soon occur. Where they were working now was the aged grand amphitheater.

Turning her head away from the window, the merbunny slowly swam over to her bedroom's mirror. She got a good look at herself in the white dress that her mother had previously selected.

Fumbling through some of the things she had on the desk nearby, she first grabbed the bracelet that Sharla gave her a few moments ago and placed it over her paw.

Her ears perked up as they registered the sound of her mother's voice, presumably giving orders to some of the crew. "No!" she could hear her exclaim. "I already said we weren't putting those there."

Shortly after, a knock came to her bedroom door, and her mother's voice, now sounding a lot more delicate than it previously did, asked her if she could come in. Judith swam over and opened the door for her, and her mother made her way inside, one paw behind her back.

After a moment of silence between the two of them, her mother said, "There was something special I wanted to give to you before the big event."

Her mother revealed that what she was hiding behind her was a small silver box. Opening it up, she unveiled a particular piece of jewelry. Inside of the little box was a necklace, consisting of silver strands and a small piece of amethyst in the middle of it.

"This necklace," her mother explained, "was worn by your grandmother when she was your age, and I wore it on the day of my ceremony, too. On this night, you'll be the third generation to don this heirloom."

Judith took it out of the box her mother was holding, put it on and looked at how it appeared on her with the rest of her outfit. Smiling at her reflection, she actually adored the way that it appeared around her neck.

"Thank you, Mother," she simply replied.

A smile was given back at her, right before a voice from behind her sounded as if it needed some sort of assistance.

"Your Majesty?" the crew member waiting out in the halls inquired, holding something in his paws. "Where shall we place this?"

With a roll of her eyes, Judith's mother turned around and swam back out into the halls. "Does no one in this place have a sense of vision?" she proclaimed as she went back to what she was doing.

As the door shut behind her, Judith, happy with her overall appearance, simply went back to looking out at the window, watching the crews on the outside of the palace as they continued to busily work.

In her mind she made a pledge, and she would try her best to keep to it no matter what happened. There was a few moments she didn't exactly make her mother the happiest, but tonight was not going to be an addition to that list.

Tonight was the night that she was going to make her mother proud.

* * *

 ** _A Few Hours Later…_**

Basically every available spot within the amphitheater was taken. The sloped, semicircular construction had a great bit commotion circulating within it, coming from the conversations that were being spoken by mermammals young and old. Some looked quite excited to see how things went on this particular night, while others (particularly the older ones within the crowd) had expressions of concern written across them.

From where she was currently positioned, just outside of the spot she would make her entrance through, Judith could see just how full the one side of the amphitheater truly was.

Lucky for her, however, she didn't have to make her appearance just yet. Before every ceremony that was held in this area, there was a sort of introduction that began with music. Because of this, Judith had a few more minutes to get herself ready to enter the grand place and make her mother proud of her.

The sounds of the crowds of mermammals started to fade away rather quickly, and it was due to a someone swimming into the amphitheater. The figure that made her way inside was a pulchritudinous merzelle, wearing a gorgeous crimson-colored dress that flowed all the way down to her tail.

With the crowds completely hushed, the performance officially began. Her tune sung of power and honor to those who protected the province long ago, and the audiences remained completely attentive as she continued on.

When her performance reached its conclusion, there was a moment of silence before the crowds started to make their applause. The merzelle swam out, and silence stirred within the waters once again.

Two rows of merbunny guards started to swim their way through the entrances, remaining in a fixed formation as they did so. The guards were donned with shimmering uniforms, their helmets and breastplates consisting of some of the best silver that one could possibly see. Additionally, each of them appeared to wear a necklace with a shark's tooth on it—a symbolic representation of their unadulterated bravery.

After all of them were present, Judith knew that know was the time for her own entrance into the amphitheater, too. The merbunny nervously followed her mother's lead as she swam inside, being greeted by the sounds of the crowd as she became visible.

Judith turned her head in both directions, looking at all of those that were watching her and her mother. Within some of the noise, she was certain that she could hear Sharla's ecstatic applause. Sure enough, upon redirecting her attention to what was in front of her, Judith saw her friend watching from one of the amphitheater's closer rows.

After the clapping and acclamations were brought to a halt, Judith knew that it was time for her to speak towards the crowds. Her and her mother swam up a few inches as they both got ready to address the crowds.

"All mermammals great and small," Judith began, hoping that that was a good beginning to what she was saying. "I come before you on this night as an heiress to the throne."

Her mother was the next to speak. "Fellow citizens," she said. "In accordance with the traditions we have followed since the construction of this beloved province, I present you with the next of my kin that will continue to solemnly protect us just as I have. On the night of this ceremony, I present to you my daughter, Judith Laverne Hopps."

After the introduction of speaking concluded, the crowds erupted once again before the rest of the ceremony's proceedings carried on. Judith knew quite well that what was next was for her to demonstrate her abilities.

The merbunny gulped, straightened her posture, and got herself ready. She had practiced these particular spells that she would be demonstrating for quite some time, but somehow she still felt concerned of messing something up while everyone was watching her.

 _Relax,_ she told herself. _Remember what you told yourself. Tonight you will make Mother proud._

Judith began with the energy spell that she had previously rehearsed leading up to this moment. She copied the the actions that she had tried to memorize as best as she could.

" _Ut forma_ ," she chanted, her voice faint.

 _Please work,_ she thought in the back of her head. _Gods, please just let this spell work as it should._

Her internal prayer appeared to receive its answer; the energy spell worked according to plan. As the orb of newly-formed energy took formation, Judith could hear the crowds making their positive remarks as she carried on. She made the orb get larger by focusing harder and harder upon it, thinking less about all of the eye that were looking down at her as she worked. Once she made it larger, she concluded the spell by making the created energy dissipate.

After that was complete, she turned around and saw that there was a small but pleased smile residing on her mother's face. Judith ended up smiling as well upon seeing this.

 _Doing good so far,_ she thought.

The additional spells that she had previously studied were what followed afterwards. It was a dazzling spectacle of magic to those who were watching, and every mermammal that was watching from the sloped portions of the amphitheater remained in awe.

When it was all said and done, Judith happily grinned at how well things had gone. _And to think,_ she thought, _you worried the_ entire _time about everything that could've went wrong._

Not that she wished to give herself a pat on the back, but she personally believed that she did wonderfully when it came to everything. And the eruption of cheers from the crowd was enough evidence to prove it.

She looked at all of the clapping that was being bestowed to her. Just as she would have expected from her friend, Judith saw that Sharla was the most exhilarated in the row that she watched from.

As much as she didn't want to admit to her mother that she was right all along, she knew that she was. This ceremony was proving to be one of the greatest days in her young life, and she would forever remember this extremely pivotal moment.

However, it was when she was at her happiest that everything unexpectedly started to take a turn for the worse...

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey there, everybody! Apologies in advance for that dastardly cliffhanger that I just left y'all on.**

 **Anywho, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter this time around, and that I did decent job at crafting the ceremony.** **And as always, let me know what your thoughts were on this one. Feedback, good and bad, is gladly appreciated.**

 **'Til next time! :D**


	6. Chapter Six

In an effort to calm him down and make him forget about his worries, Finnick decided to bring Nicholas over to one of their favorite spots within the district. It was a little bit busier than usual, but it didn't stop the two of them from enjoying themselves in the slightest.

At the current moment, Nicholas was apparently mesmerized by the soothing sounds coming from a nearby musician that was position next to a small establishment. The mermammal played what appeared to be a series of drums, the sound that they made causing Nick to _almost_ forget about what had been troubling him before.

Everyone that was approaching the nearby musician simply swimming passed him, not even taking notice of what raw talent he had. Unlike the others, however, Nicholas appeared to acknowledge musical talents when they were present. After all, he certainly knew that he wasn't capable of doing what that musician was currently doing.

When the mermammal finished the little percussion melody that he had conjured up, Nicholas swam over to him and placed a coin that he had on hand with the rest of his tips. The musician smiled upon him doing so, beginning to play another tune that was at a much faster tempo than the one he was previously playing.

Afterwards, Finnick gestured for Nicholas to follow him as they went over to another spot that they didn't check out just yet. What was in front of them was three vendors, all of which appeared to be selling little crafts that were made with the fragments of shells found on the ocean floors. Necklaces, bracelets, and an assortment of trinkets stretched as far as he could see.

Seeing the prices that some of the items were being sold for, it made the merfox question inside why he had never thought about trying to make a good bit of money by creating and perhaps selling what they were. Shells, after all, were a product of the oceans that they called their world, so making such things were probably a lot cheaper to create.

Perhaps he would try to do that in the future, but first he felt obligated to solve the mystery of the strange calling for the merbunny that was currently haunting his thoughts.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

The shift in how things were sailing around started with a sudden trembling sensation. Judith's smile dissipated upon feeling the expanse of sand surrounding feel like it was quaking below her.

The guards around had felt it as well, and held the weaponry they were grasping onto up high, as if they anticipating something to emerge before them or the successor to the throne. Everyone that had been watching Judith from the seating tiers of the circular structure chorused with a series of gasps, panic gradually starting grow as they all started to look around in confusion.

The sound that followed next was of the foundation of grand seating gallery starting to shake. The aged construction looked like it were going to eventually tumble at any given time, so it almost seemed a bit miraculous that it didn't at such a strange and unpredictable phenomenon.

Judith's mother started to issue to everyone that had gathered here not to panic and that the proceedings would continue as they normally would. However, a second occurrence of the trembling, a little bit more powerful than the previous one, caused the exact opposite of calmness.

If there wasn't already enough apprehensiveness stirring within the audience, the sound of a merbunny guard, previously positioned outside of the open building, shouting as he swam forward caused alarm to be at its maximum capacity.

"Everyone must leave!" the guard bellowed with powerful voice. "We all need get out of here immediately! This is _not_ a drill!"

Everyone started to make their way out of where they had first came in at those words. Mermammals could be seen darting left and right due to the uproar. Some of the more youthful ones hugging onto their mother or father's side out of the state of being scared of things that came with being a certain age. Several sentries came over towards the tiers, helping the esteemed guests exit the area in the quickest fashion possible.

Turning her attention towards the one that made the panic-inducing statement, Judith's mother sternly asked, "What is happening? Why have you barged in here and caused alarm for the guests?"

"There is danger approaching, Your Majesty," the guard explained. "The guards that you sent to patrol the surrounding territories reported that a threat to the kingdom was coming this way. And steadily at that!"

"Does it have anything to do with the land mammals?" Judith asked.

The young merbunny knew just about everything there was to know about the colonies of mammals that lived above the ocean's expanse. From the information that she studied in the library of the palace, most of what she understood about them was that they had no respect for the waters or what they contained. The artifacts of the land mammals, a few of their names known but many of them unknown, were said to be spotted in the deeper depths of their world. But the major thing that she knew about them was that they were a threat to their kind.

"No," the guard said, his attention now directed at Judith. "The threat seems to be coming from the waters in the west."

Her mother let out a grunt under her breath. "No doubt in my mind that it's those warmongers from the other kingdom."

"Your Majesty, we need to escort you to the-"

From behind their backs, four arrows flew passed them, luckily piercing the sand below them a good distance away.

Judith let out a gasp at how sudden that had occurred. She had always heard about how treacherous the ruler of the western waters was. Unlike her mother's kingdom, and the kingdom of Sharla's family to was in the east, the territory they were pertaining to always seemed to make war its first response to basically anything. There had always been tension between them, but Judith just didn't really expect for a threat to come to pass on a night that had been so pleasant a few moments ago.

Her mother was quickly escorted away from the area, and she tried her best to keep a collected mentality in the midst of the situation.

" _Retrieve the bag…_ "

Judith heard that voice call inside of her, the one that had previously been urging her to find the merfox earlier. Just as two other armed guards swam over to her sides, an idea of what that calling could of possibly meant sprouted in her mind.

"It's at the palace," the merbunny murmured to herself. Proceeding to dart away from the guards and towards the nearest exit of the structure, she remarked out loud, "I must find it!"

"Princess!" a sentry cried.

Judith simply disregarded their words, swimming as fast as she could to the destination that she now had in mind.

* * *

The second she reached the main entrance to the palace, she immediately darted off to where her bedroom was located.

" _Retrieve the bag…_ "

The call came another time the moment that she swam inside.

Judith approached the mirror that she more than often checked her appearance in, looking down at the jewelry and such that she had still scattered upon the stand in front of her. She fumbled through all of the sparkly, colorful items, not finding what she was looking for.

The merbunny ducked down and looked underneath the stand, finding a small bag that looked like it was made out of some sort of coarse fabric. She grabbed it and kept it tightly in her grasp as she made way for the palace's front doors once again.

Her ears heard a sound that made their perk up as tall they possibly could. The noise was some sort of swoosh, the source of it undetectable.

It didn't remain undetectable for long, however, when she saw glass shattering from above her. This caused her let out a gasp, and she saw that two arrows with some sort of black paper tied around them pierce the palace floor.

Judith wanted to see what the papers upon them said, believing there was a possible calling card written on them from the western territory, but dismissed the idea. It was quite possible that those arrows had been laced with some sort of poison, with its intended target being anyone within range that was part of royalty.

The fain sounds of laughter came from around where the window had been shattered by the impactful arrows, coming from a figure that swam through the newly-made opening up above her.

When it got closer towards her, she saw that the figure was of a tan-furred merbunny, cloaked in gray attire and holding a small sword in one paw. Shortly after he made his appearance in the palace, five others came swimming in where he had entered from. Judith could only assume that these mermammals were from the territory that her mother spoke of.

"There she is," the tan merbunny proclaimed. "That's the princess! Seize her at once!"

Judith's mouth hung wide open as she looked around the other merbunnies now surrounding her. There was six of them and only one of her.

Her eyes darted to the bag that she still had clutched in her paw. As she instinctively swam away from the dangerous group, she opened the bag up and looked at what it contained. Inside of it was five lustrous spheres, shinier to the eye than any other pearl one could possibly find.

They were not just an ordinary pearl from nature, but an item that went along with the magic arts she had studied all along. The spheres within the sack, she remembered, allowed a mermammal to transport to whatever given location they desired. What one had to do for them to work was hold it while thinking of where they wished to go, throw it below them and remain still as the cloud it put of encompassed them.

Judith's situation was different, however; she didn't have a desired location. The only place she desired to be in was somewhere that the merbunnies that wished to seize her weren't.

She ended up directing herself to a spot where the six that were following her had her cornered.

"You cannot run from us forever, Princess," the leader of the group hissed. The way he said those words gave the obvious impression that he had evil things planned in his head.

Judith quickly reached a paw into the bag, pulled out one of the spheres out of it. _Take me away from the danger,_ was all she thought. _Please take me away from the danger._

She threw it on the ground. It broke in half and a cloud of white smoke rose up in front of her.

* * *

She had no absolutely idea where she was after the cloud started to vanish. Most of her scenery were dark, but she could make out the shapes of the seaweed on her sides swishing to and fro.

 _Where am I?_ she thought.

With no sign of the other merbunnies anywhere, Judith had the ability to pause a moment and catch her breath. It didn't last that long, however, when she heard the sounds of chorused howling slicing through the noiseless expanse she found herself in.

"Merwolves," she muttered.

Judith's ears started to droop at the thought that they were possibly within range. She had just barely escaped peril, and now it seemed to follow her in this unknown part of the sea in another form.

If she remembered anything from the warnings that her mother gave her, it was that there were several tribes of merwolves that still remained. Although they weren't exactly plentiful in their population, they were still considered a menace to the palace due to their evil nature.

And as the gray merbunny turned her head around to look behind her, she saw a member of said menace speedily swimming in her direction. Getting closer and closer towards her was a merwolf with a stormy gray coat of fur and a silver tail. It let out a snarl, and at that Judith couldn't do anything else but let out a small gasp.

She turned around and started to dart away, eventually cutting through some of the taller seaweed that came up within her path. Once she navigated away through all of the tall-growing algae, she unfortunately saw that there were now _three_ merwolves following her.

Judith swam even faster than she was before—faster than she ever remembered doing in her life—and made a sudden shift in direction. Veering to the right, she breezed passed some of the coral that made this part of the water its home. If she would have found herself merrily coming across this particular passageway, she would have taken her time to admire the natural beauty of the coral. This was not the time for doing something like that.

She gradually decreased how fast she darting along, turning around to face the merwolves with a serious expression on her muzzle. Cupping her paws together, she focused on the magic that she had always practiced and exclaimed, " _Discedite!_ "

An orb of white light coalesced within her grasp, releasing as she pushed her paws away from her. The energetic sphere hit one of the merwolves directly in the chest, and it let out a small whimper as it regained its composure and started to swim away.

The remaining two immediately followed the others lead, and Judith went back to retreating the area. If there were any others present, she didn't wish to be here when they showed up.

As much as she hated to admit it to herself, she was coming to the conclusion that she was officially lost, and she no idea of how far her location was from the palace.

 _If the palace hasn't been taken by those others that were chasing me before,_ a part of her thought.

As she continued onward, she saw some sort of hiding place was starting to come up in her vision. When she squinted her eyes slightly, she realized that was a cave that looked like it was larger than it appeared from a distance.

Judith's breaths started to become shallow and tired. Her vision was starting to becoming nothing but a blur. It felt as if she had used basically all of the energy she had left.

The next thing she knew, she ended up fainting from all of the exhaustion and hitting the sand below her with a thud.

About five minutes after Judith fainted, two figures emerged from the distance, swimming up to her as if they had been in some sort of a hurry.

"I believe this is her, Fin," one of them said. "I have good faith that this is the merbunny I've been having those visions about. We have to help her like that voice has been tellin' me to do."

* * *

 ** _Some Time Later…_**

Her eyelids gently fluttered open, the events of what had previously occurred still fresh in the back of her mind. Once her eyes fully opened up, she saw that where she currently laid was a place that was unfamiliar to her.

Judith could see several stones littering the sand, as well as a series of stalactite above her head. It was when she looked up at those that she knew that she was in a cave. More specifically, the one that she had spotted during all of the craziness that had happened.

The merbunny placed a paw upon her throbbing head, still looking around with a bit of confusion. As she slowly swam to where light was peaking in, she started to hear a faint voice gradually become more and more audible to her ears.

Just as she was getting closer to where she could exit from the cave, a taller figure emerged from around the corner. What Judith now saw in front of her was a merfox with an emerald tail, its having a look of concern upon it.

The merbunny's mouth hung wide open as she saw the figure that she had a vision of back in the palace's library looking at her. She heard swooshing coming from the right, and glimpsed at the silhouette of a cecealia coming closer towards the merfox.

"W-What the-" she started to mutter to herself. "This can't be real. I must be in a dream."

"Thank the god you're okay," the merfox said to her. "I was worried for a moment that I might have been too-"

Judith held out her paws in front of her. " _Discedite!_ "

She unleashed another energetic orb that was directed at a stalactite that hung just a few inches away from the russet-furred figure's head.

As the energy hit the tapering structure and caused it to fall, the merfox instinctively darted away. "Geez," he muttered as he peaked around the corner once again, "nothin' like almost getting hit with some magic bolt by the merbunny you ended up helping. But that's just the crazy thing we call life, I guess."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey there, readers! It's been awhile since I've worked on this one, but I'm back. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it was a little bit shorter than I originally intended it to be when I started to type it out.**

 **As always, don't be afraid to let me know what your thoughts were on this chapter. Your feedback is gladly appreciated.**

 **'Til next time, everyone! :D**


	7. Chapter Seven

"Who are you?" Judith demanded to know, giving the merfox in front of her a serious glare. "And where have you brought me to?"

The merbunny was more confused than she had ever been. Within a good matter of time, she experienced an interruption to her ceremony, witnessed the kingdom she was supposed to be the succeeding ruler of be overtaken by enemies, and was chased by vicious merwolves. And to add to the list of unusual circumstances, she now found herself inside a strange cave.

"Well," he replied, "I saved you from some potentially overhanging danger. If I would've left you where you had collapsed, only the gods know what might've happened."

The look on the merfox's face gave the impression that he meant well, and that his words were truthful. Judith, however, remained unsure at the moment. Her mother had always instructed her to remain wary of dangers in disguise. While there was never a recallable moment in the past where a threat that had been cloaked in such a form had to be dealt with, preparedness wasn't exactly a bad thing to be equipped with. It was a universal truth that there was a first time for everything, regardless of whatever that might be.

"How can I be certain you aren't secretly working for the kingdom in the west?" Judith inquired, uncertainty still evident in her voice.

"The what?"

"How do I know the ruler of the western waters didn't hire you to search in a different perimeter for me?"

The merfox in front of her shook his head. "I haven't the slightest idea what you're goin' on about," he answered. "Perhaps I'm in need of some enlightenment. I don't exactly express concerns about any form of political issue, so I can honestly say I'm unaware of who you're talking about."

"Yeah," the fennec cecaelia a couple spaces away said, his voice much deeper than his smaller appearance let on. He came swimming forward and joined the merfox at his right. Pointing a paw at him, he continued, "We were only trying t' find and save the merbunny he was havin' some vision of. I first thought he was losing his sanity, but I guess he was wrong, 'cause we found who he said he kept seein'."

The moment those words were spoken and the state of having a vision was mentioned, Judith started to realize something in the back of her mind. This merfox in front of her wasn't just an ordinary one; who she was seeing was the _exact_ one that she had seen in her mysterious vision back in the palace. She could distinctly remember what had occurred when that vision came to pass, and who she was looking back at matched who she had seen during that vivid image.

But she had just heard the cecaelia, who she presumed was a good friend of this merfox, mention something regarding a strange vision as well. Was it possible that they were both drawn to encounter one another? And if that was the case, why had she been called to find a merfox?

"Wait!" she suddenly uttered, holding a gray paw and getting the attention of the two in front of her. "Did I hear something about having a vision? Are you serious about that?"

"Serious as a shark attack," the fennec cecaelia answered with a nod of his head.

"What he says is the truth," the merfox said after him. "We were swimming around as usual, minding our own business, when I…" He let out a deep sigh. "I don't even know where to begin about this."

"Tell me what you can," Judith replied. "I must know what it is he said you experienced."

"Some crazy vision," the cecaelia muttered. "What other information do you want out of him?"

"Fin, don't be impolite!" the merfox said to his friend. Looking back at the merbunny, he continued, "Well… it's a bit unusual when described. But it was like I was hearing some strange voice inside my head. 'Find her,' is what I think it said. And then I saw a merbunny who looked _exactly_ like you just hovering nearby, but then everything suddenly returned to normal."

Judith couldn't help but let out a gasp under her breath in that moment. The vision he had just described to her sounded like he had experienced something extremely similar to what she had leading up to this moment. These current circumstances were _far_ from coincidental.

The merfox suddenly realized that the merbunny's face had a bit of an awestruck look taking formation. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know how willing you are to believe this," Judith replied, "but… I had a vision very similar to that not too long ago."

"Are you serious?" the merfox asked, a look of surprise now taking over his face as well.

"I am. I experienced something close to what you were telling me about."

Who was in front of her shook his head in disbelief. "N-No," he proceeded to mutter. "This can't be possible. If that's all true, then what in the name of the deep blue are we supposed to do now? I mean, how is it possible that we both happened to have visions of each other that lead to our eventual crossing of paths?"

"I wish I had a better understanding of all of this, but I'm afraid I have no idea either," Judith said. After a momentary pause, she asked, "What is your name, by the way?"

"I'm Nicholas," the merfox answered, "and over there is my friend, Finnick. And you are?"

"Judith," she replied. "Judith Hopps. I'm-"

" _Find the lodging... Find the two..."_

The words of the merbunny were cut short upon hearing those two statements, coming from the same voice that was associated with her previous visions. She looked over at Nicholas, who had a paw over his chest and was looking around the cave as if he were searching for someone.

"Did you just hear that?" Nicholas inquired in a shocked tone of voice.

"Someone telling you to 'find the lodging?'" Judith asked in reply.

The merfox slowly nodded his head. "And to 'find the two?'"

"Yes, I heard both of those things."

Nicholas held a paw over his head. "But what is _that_ supposed to be mean?" he said out of both frustration and confusion. "Who are 'the two,' and where is this... _lodging_ that supposed to be found?"

"I don't know," Judith answered. "But based on the fact that we both heard this call at the same time, it's obvious that there's-"

" _Find the lodging!_ "

This time the voice she heard was ear-piercing and a lot more demanding in tone. Nicholas obviously heard it alongside her, as his paws were now covering his ears, like doing so would fix the current situation.

Right in that very moment, not even a few seconds after hearing the call being repeated, the scenery within her vision started to slip away. The way everything started to dissipate made it look as if she was being pushed away into some unknown location.

The instant she regained her senses and started to look around, she was realized that wherever she was now was nowhere near the location of the cave. She was now within what she knew was a far cry from the more populated territories of the waters. Unlike where the palace she had originally started from was located, there wasn't any large constructions in sight.

The only thing that she _could_ see was a lone dwelling, which had been fortified around absolutely nothing. Compared to the exquisite designs that consisted of where she had been used to, this place she was looking at was very plain and gave off the impression that whoever lived there wasn't concerned about its exterior appearance.

Two figures started to swim forward, looking as if they were about to approach Judith from where she currently was. However, as soon as they approached the dwelling, they both paused. From where they were now, she was able to see what type of mermammals they were. One of which was a merbunny like her, but with stripes upon his head, and the other was a mervixen with a coat of elegantly white fur.

" _Find the lodging... Find the two..._ "

Once her ears registered those words once again, she realized that this was yet another vision that she was experiencing. Right in front of her was, presumably, the lodging and "the two" that she was told to find. Despite those details already being established, however, she was still uncertain as to where exactly she would be able to find them.

Judith turned her head to the left upon hearing someone in that direction, spotting the russet-furred merfox. He was having this exact same vision alongside her, and he looked as if he were in utter shock.

An instant later, everything around Judith shifted out of her vision, and she found herself once again inside the cave of the merfox. She turned her attention towards Nicholas, who was leaned up against the wall of the cave as he took a deep breath in and out.

"Another vision..." Judith observed aloud.

"That's stating the obvious," Nicholas muttered as he swam away from where he was leaning against and over towards the merbunny. "However, I do believe I know where what we saw might be."

"Where?"

"I think that lodging's passed the Outer Province. There's supposed to be a commodity somewhere beyond there."

"Huh?" Judith mumbled faintly. Seeing nothing else than the areas surrounding where she grew up, she wasn't sure about what things looked like passed the aforementioned province.

"I knew someone _—_ an old friend of mine _—_ that decided to find somewhere to live passed there. I heard that it's supposed to be super serene in that area, but the dwellings and other things are really far apart from one another. Guess the serenity doesn't come without a catch."

"And one of those two mermammals we just saw was your friend?"

Nicholas shook his head. "No. I don't know who either of those two were, and I know _everybody_." The merfox let out a sigh before looking over at the gray merbunny once again. "But I guess we're supposed to find this place now, even though I don't know why."

"Do you know how to get to this area you believe we saw?"

"I've never been passed that province, I'm afraid. However, I _do_ recall that friend of mine telling me that you'll know you reached your destination when you come across a huge marker. He thinks it was a land mammal object that somehow sunk to the floor of the sea, but he couldn't say for sure what it was the last time we spoke to each other." Something else started to come to the merfox's mind as he spoke. "Oh, and I also remember him saying something about it be a hiding place for little fish."

"Then we must travel there," Judith said.

"Swimming through the Outer Province is easy," Nicholas replied, "but it's whatever lies beyond that is uncertain."

" _Find the lodging... Find the two..._ "

They both heard it again. That would make it the fourth time those words rang inside of them.

"This call probably won't seize, though, until we find the place it's telling us to," the merbunny said.

Nicholas nodded. "I believe you're right about that. In that case, we should probably begin a trek in search of it." He turned his body around and called out, "Fin!"

"I'm all ears!" the fennec cecaelia called back as he came swimming forward to where he was. "What is it? Another one of your visions?"

Nicholas answered, "I think we're supposed to chart through some territory we never swam to before."

Finnick simply nodded. It was pretty clear to him that he clearly didn't have any other choice but to travel alongside him. He had already helped Nicholas find the merbunny, so helping him whatever this next vision of his was obviously going to be what he did next. "Where to?" he asked the merfox.

"The Outer Province," was the answer he received.

Finnick swam slowly to another section of the cave, where a small sack remained hidden. It was only large enough to fit in the grasp of his smaller paws, and the sounds of coins jingling around inside of it could be heard as he picked it up and held onto it. "Should probably take this with us," he said as he looked back at Nicholas. "Isn't this normally the time that market we heard about happens nearby?"

The merfox held up a paw. "Now isn't a time for browsing through a market, Fin," he said. "There's a more important matter in mind right now. Besides, we're not going directly to that province; we're traveling beyond."

Finnick nodded, just remembering that Nicholas said about traveling terriotory they had never swam through. He swam back over to where the sack of coins had been hidden before he had picked them up, setting them back down and covering them with a larger rock. After it had been placed in a way that no one would suspect money was hidden there, he swam over to where Nicholas and the merbunny were.

"Ready whenever you are," he said to them.

Nicholas replied, "Let's go, then. The quicker we get swimming, the quicker we find what we're supposed to look for."

* * *

 _ **Some Time Later...**_

The Outer Province, although not as busy in population compared to the other territories within the sea, had a good number of mermammals bustling about. This was mostly thanks to the market that had been mentioned before they left the cave. But even though it was in the interest of Finnick, none of them stopped to look at what was available. Now was not the time to do such a thing; just like Nicholas had remarked before, there was something with a bit more importance at the moment. The market could wait until it was hosted another time.

As the merbunny, merfox, and fennec cecaelia swam around several portions of the province, they started reach an area within it where everything started to gradually get less busy than it was before. Only several constructions could be spotted on either side now, with each of them a good number of spaces apart from one another. And only two or maybe three mermammals could be seen going about every now and then, in contrast to the bustling number of citizens that were filling where the market was being held awhile back. They were reaching what would probably be referred to most as the edges of the province. And while the sudden decrease noise and the like was almost a tad eerie, they continued to swim forward until there was no more buildings and no more goers to see.

Some time later, nothing could be seen around them. As Judith and the other two looked around at their surroundings, it was nothing more than the sea floor, some distant schools of fish, and some nearby seagrass and other plants. The merbunny amongst the three took a quick glance behind her, seeing that the buildings that marked civilization were now way out in the distance. While she was looking this way, she also looked around to make sure that nothing considerably dangerous was around. Despite there being silence and silence only, just as her mother said time and time again, precaution was never a bad thing.

After that momentary pause, she gestured for the three of them continue forward. For a good bit of time, she wasn't exactly sure if the location she and the merfox had the vision of was in that direction.

 _Will I eventually spot it straight ahead, or do we have to travel some other direction in order to reach it?_ she thought. _My mind's telling me to just continue on the path we're going, but hopefully I'm leading us all in the right direction._

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile..._**

Skye let out a gasp, her mind slowly started to come back to the present moment. Looking back around at all of the shelves containing the potions she had created and her life's work, her calmness returned to her after seeing what she just did it.

"The merfox and merbunny…" she mumbled to herself. "They have encountered one another. I just saw it."

After making that observation to herself, the mervixen swam over to a nearby window within the room and just looked out at what she could see (although there wasn't exactly much to see where she resided). Her friend Jack wasn't around at the current moment for her to tell him about what she had just seen. There was no doubt about it that he was genuinely shocked by what had occurred before, so whenever he came around again, she needed to keep him informed.

Right then and there, as she was gazing at nothing particular, her ears registered the sound of something approaching the outside of her dwelling. _What could that be?_ she asked herself.

Skye's internal question was soon answered when a large manta ray swam passed her field of vision. The mervixen watched from the window as it went by before slowly turning back around and making its way back to where she could see it more clearly.

Upon seeing it, Skye put on a smile. It was something she needed on don at this moment in time. "Hello, Grandmother," she said aloud.

Her grandmother—a large believer in reincarnation—always made remarks that when she died, she would return as a manta ray, which was her favorite of all of the many sea creatures. After she had sadly passed away, Skye always took notice of this large manta ray that always used to swim nearby whenever she was experiencing any state of worry or concern. So for the longest time, putting those occurrences into consideration, she always like to believe that this was her grandmother coming to her whenever she needed to see her.

The manta ray remained where it was for a brief moment before it slowly swam away from where Skye saw it. She watched it as it got smaller and smaller within her vision as it went away.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, beyond the Outer Province...**_

"I think I'm starting to see something up ahead," Nicholas said to the others.

Some time ago, the merfox had took notice of some schools of fish all going towards the left, as if they were on their way to something in particular. He suggested earlier to make a turn in that direction, and that was exactly what they did.

It had been more of a similar passageway for them for awhile, but several seconds after he had said he spotted something, the others did as well. Something large could be seen way in the distance, nothing more than a shape from where they were.

Finnick pointed a paw at what they had all spotted. "What in the deep blue is that thing out 'ere?" he asked. "Never seen anythin' like that before."

"I haven't a clue, Fin," Nicholas replied.

Judith looked over at merfox and said, "You said before that this one friend of yours told you about a huge marker pointing to a commodity, right? And that it was a hiding place for fish?"

"Yeah," the merfox replied.

The merbunny of the group continued, "Do you see all of those fish way out there? I think there heading towards it like they're on a hunt for shelter. Perhaps that's what we're supposed to look for." As she slowly swam forward, she added, "Come on. Let's go check it out."

The others followed Judith as she swam towards the object they spotted, which remain idle from where it was. As the the three all got closer and closer to it, they realized that it was much, much larger than they thought it did from where they had first spotted it.

As she got a careful glimpse at it, Judith observed that this was some sort of large vessel. While she was unsure of what it did or how it worked, she did noticed that the word "Willie" had been etched upon the side of it.

"What is this… _thing_?" Nicholas said, breaking the silence that grew among them.

"I've read about these things before," Judith replied informatively. "From what I recall, I think these are crafts that land mammals use to propel themselves across the surface of the water. I don't know how, but it managed to sink all of the way down here."

"Never heard of such a thing," was the reply of the merfox. "I'm aware of the existence of land mammals, but I have no knowledge about what they make. I just know they're supposed to be feared for what they do to the water and what not."

As Judith got closer towards the front of what she was looking, a school of fish suddenly came from out from where they had been hiding within it. Several seconds after that, an eel of some sort slithered away from off of its surface and onto the floor of the sea.

"A place for smaller sea creatures…" she mumbled to herself. Looking over at the merfox and his friend, she remarked, "I think this is what your friend was talking about."

Nicholas replied, "If that's true, then we must be getting close to the lodging that's supposed to be found."

Right in that moment, which was full of lifted spirits after having traveling a good distance, an unexpected quaking sensation startled all three of them. The very instant it happened, Judith's mind went back to the moment she felt something similar during the ceremony. Although she wasn't sure what had caused it before or right now, she wished on the inside to find out why, as this was something unfamiliar to her.

"What was that?" Finnick said to the others after a moment of silence.

"I'm not exactly sure," Judith responded, "but we need to keep focused on finding where we need to go. We found the supposed marker, so we probably shouldn't be too much further."

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, elsewhere in the waters...**_

The merwolf steadily swam forward, its attention solely fixated on maneuvering through the seaweed that was tall and flourishing around him. Gripping tightly onto the small yet sharp dagger in his left paw, he cut through the plants and made it a quick right.

As he made this turn, letting out a small snarl and baring his teeth, he approached a series of large rocks that were sitting below him in the sand. Holding onto the blade within his grasp, he continued onward, up until he looked down at something that caught him by sheer surprise.

Hiding itself among the rocks below was a long eel, which quickly darted away and sent a sudden shiver up the spine of the merwolf. As he saw the sea creature slither away in search of somewhere else to hide, he let out a yelp that sounded fearful and unlike the others among his kind.

While he had told a numerous amount of times that fear wasn't something he was allowed to show (even if he strongly felt it), eels had always creeped him out. There was no possible explanation for it; it was just something he had always experienced. They just simply weren't creatures that appealed to him very well.

He paused right where he was, just as two other werwolves started to approach him from behind. He turned around as they stopped, and both of them casted glares towards him like they were upset at something.

"You were doing quite well with that practice ambush," one of them said to him. "Why in the name of the gods did you stop like you were unable to move?" He looked over to the right at the eel in the distance, which was still slithering away, and pointed to it. "Was it that damned thing that halted you?"

There was no use trying to lie to him; it was evident in the expression of his face that that was what caused him to stop in the middle of the practice. Sagging his head, he replied, "Yes…"

The merwolf that had asked him the question grunted under his breath, swimming up closer to him and getting close to his face. "The last thing the tribe needs is some weakling like you to protect us," he snarled. "How will you defend us from a bigger threat when you turn into an imbecile over something stupid like that? You're a disgrace to all merwolves."

He simply nodded his head as the two near him started to swim in the other direction, leaving him along where he was. It wasn't worth fighting with them over the remarks he had just received, so he simply took them in without saying anything back. After they had completely vanished from the area, he pondered about what had just occurred.

He indeed was a merwolf, but his actions and overall personality weren't exactly of one. Those among his tribe, as well as a few other small tribes that were still nearby, were consistent of thieves and killers. This was not him, though; he didn't wish to be a part of such things.

He believed in his heart that it was possible for him, despite being of a species that was known for being ruthless, to start his own legacy. He knew that it was awaiting him, and that it would come to him according to the timing of the gods. But until that time came, he was just the disgrace to all merwolves.

 _Not for long, though,_ he thought. _I just need to believe something better will come to pass. That I can be better than just a member of this tribe, and perhaps part of something much greater._


End file.
